


O n e : Religion is a Dangerous Game

by happy_rascal



Series: Short Stories [1]
Category: Original Work
Genre: From a prompt, M/M, Thanks Tumblr
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-25
Updated: 2018-06-25
Packaged: 2019-05-28 10:26:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,574
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15046868
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/happy_rascal/pseuds/happy_rascal
Summary: This prompt came from the tumblr user writing-promt-s and some of the story is based off a short story called 'A Prince in Another Place', there's also obscure references or slight hints to 'The X-Files', 'The Picture of Dorian Gray' and 'The Devil Went Down to Georgia'.





	O n e : Religion is a Dangerous Game

     I'd like to say it's not true and it's just an overactive imagination, however, I don't think that's the case. He came here and it was his striking presence that sparked the idea. It was his very immediate arrival that ignited the flames of suspicion.

     What if my religion professor was Lucifer himself?

     Before you dismiss me as someone who's insane, just listen:

     1. Our old professor - in occupational status not in age - was not a bad man, he was actually very nice. He was in his early thirties and he never showed any signs of poor mental health but I suppose that's the thing, you never know until you're told or until the person does the unthinkable. 

     Mr Summers was a lovely man and an excellent professor, he had taught us many things that had changed our perspectives on religion. But there was that unforgettable day when the Department Head was in our lecture hall and not Mr Summers; naturally, we all had questions but the Head answered all of them in one sentence " Mr Summers has sadly hung himself from the beams of his apartment." 

     We were all extremely shocked but after thinking into it, a few of us found we were not surprised. Mr Summers got bullied by the Science teachers for his name and his choice of occupation. How stupid is that? How can people think that a name is so 'pansy and girly' that they had to shout obscenities at the poor man? How can they mock someone for their choices? They're  _teachers_  for God's sakes! Mr Summers had always tried to keep to himself and just get on with his life but there was always someone who would make his hours truly miserable.

     Well, straight after the tragic announcement, the Head introduced us to our new professor. Now, I don't know about you but when the school has already hired someone the  _day_  after they had found out their former peer had unexpectedly committed suicide, I'd be a little suspicious. In fact, I was. It was said that the man had appeared at the school for an interview for Mr Summers' replacement that very morning and in desperation, the school had accepted him without any hesitation. It was like they gave in to the temptation of rash, undefined decision.

     The teacher was introduced as Mr Morningstar. Being in a religion class, we all found this quite funny because 'morning star' is supposed to be the meaning of Lucifer's name - translation: 'light bearer/ bringer'. But something at the back of my mind was whispering to me that this man may not be what he seems.

     2. Mr Morningstar was a stunner. He had a striking appearance but this picture of perfection became more and more imperfect the longer you looked at him. He is like a piece of artwork that gets more and more disturbing the longer you stare at it. He has a strong jaw with a hint of stubble dusting his face and it trails down his neck slightly. It actually looks like he's been slightly singed. He had a mop of flaming red hair which is really what makes his appearance so striking and he smiles to himself a whole lot as of he has a little joke with himself constantly. When he laughs, he shows his excellent teeth, they are strong-looking and rather pointed as if they are sharp blades. Another thing that makes me question his appearance is the size of his feet; they are curiously small. He had heard someone point this out and he simply stated the most trouble he had was getting shoes to fit him - "the trouble is my  _oddly_  shaped feet." But he seems nimble enough, as far as I can tell. His eyes are crinkled at the sides and I figured it was from all the smiling to himself; his eyes are also a strange orange colour and I still can't tell if it is the light, his natural colour or if he wears contacts. His nose is thin, long and pointed, his nostrils are flared slightly, too. He is about six feet tall with a broad chest and billboard-like shoulders. His arms are as big as tree trunks but he slims out as you get closer to his tiny feet.

     3. We had all waited in eager anticipation to see how Mr Morningstar would handle being bullied because the Science teachers could always find something about someone to make fun of. But he never needed to stand up to them. Instead, he befriended them. Oh, of course, everyone knows how to stand up to the teachers well, everyone except poor Mr Summers. But standing up to and befriending them are two very different things. 

     He approached them one day, he bent down to talk to them and the next minute it was as if they had been put under a spell. They were laughing at his jokes and hanging on his every word. They even went out after school hours to the pub. The really freaky thing was that they stopped bullying people. Sometimes you would see it on their faces, they had the thoughts and they were making it down to their mouths but before anything happened, they seemed to change into a different person, someone who wouldn't ever think to hurt someone with their words.

     4. This is where things get weird. Two days prior to the incident that I'm going to talk to you about happened, Mr Morningstar had shown us a trick where he lit all the fingers on his right hand and then used his lit fingers to light the fingers on his left hand - including both thumbs. 

     He then blew out the flames on two fingers and moved his hands in a way to show a slightly crooked version of a menorah. No one's really sure how he did it, either. The next day, one of the Science teachers, Mrs Ernst, had somehow broken from Mr Morningstar's 'spell' and had said something rather crude about an English professor's weight gain and I swear I saw Mr Morningstar'seyes flash with fire. The next day after that, Mrs Ernst was found in her office burnt to a crisp; the  _very_ strange thing about it was that the fire damage was only located on the late Mrs Ernst. Her death had been reported as spontaneous combustion although it defies all laws of science.

     5. Fast forward two weeks and we were in another one of Mr Morningstar's classes. He had produced a fiddle that he had painted gold. He had mentioned in passing he knew how to play but no one really took it in until we heard him play. He was a spectacular player, he recounted the time that he had played against a teenaged boy when he was younger and the boy won so he graciously gave away his older fiddle and bought another one and painted that gold, too. His playing was beautiful but he played some songs which he had said to have composed himself and they were - although never terrible - quite different; he pulls the bow across the strings and they'd make an evil hiss but it seemed to fit with the style of music he was playing. One time, Mr Morningstar had lit up the bow and the strings and played four songs in a row without a care that he might burn his face.

     Another science teacher, Mr Bennett, went rogue and commented on the shape of an art teacher's head. The next day, he had been found in his office with burst eardrums and burst lungs. The report had explained that Mr Bennett had heard a sound so loud it had killed him, forcing his eardrums to burst and the increased air pressure caused his lungs to burst, too. The strange thing was that no one else had heard a sound or suffered any damage but the police wrote it off as no one else was close enough which was stupid because you'd think a sound placed at 185 - 2OO decibels would be heard by many but whatever, not my business, I guess.

     6. It's now three weeks after Mr Bennett's death and there's only one science teacher left from the bullies: Mr Gray. Mr Gray was actually not the worst one. He only said things when the others started on people. He was actually very innocent and only picked up what he needed to as to stay on the other two teachers' good sides. He was a sheep and probably only started doing it because he didn't want it happening to him. He had always seemed a little timid, compared to the others, around Mr Morningstar and I can't really blame him. He is an intimidating man. 

     I can't help but think Mr Gray has a tiny weeny crush on Mr Morningstar and, if my suspicions are right, Lucifer was said to come in the form of beauty and/ or temptation. Our school isn't very open to the ideas of homosexuality ( being a bisexual this isn't particularly fun for me ) but I can't really guess anything about Mr Gray.

     It's the next day and I can see Mr Morningstar and Mr Gray deep in discussion about God knows what but it seems to be making Mr Gray fidget - whether it is in discomfort or something else, I can't be sure. Mr Morningstar is smiling again, he seems to take pleasure in making people squirm with some kind of emotion. Nevertheless, I let it go and I proceed to my first lesson.

     It gets to my last lesson of the day which is Religion. As I enter the classroom, I see Mr Morningstar talking with Mr Gray, he starts getting up to leave but Mr Morningstar tells him just to take a seat or stand at the side and they can 'finish their conversation straight after class'. Mr Gray takes a seat at the end of the front row and I notice how intensely he is watching the professor. Today's topic is about Cain and Able. The first human to be born and the first human to die. At the end of class, we all filed out and I was the last to leave, I had to turn in an essay that was two weeks late - oops - but the professor barely even noticed. I was pretty grateful.

     Over the next couple of weeks, I see the two professors together more and more and every time I see them, Mr Gray looks a little more. . .confident about his actions and his words. He has a gleam to his eyes that I've only seen in Mr Morningstar's eyes, it's almost  _soulless_.

     It's been a week and Mr Gray has been very disobedient towards anyone but Mr Morningstar, I overheard the Dean saying it was like he has started 'living a life of debauchery'. It almost made me laugh out loud at the very Victorian way he had said it.

     It's three days after my last observations and the school has been notified that there will be a police investigation.

     The police are here. Apparently, Mr Gray has been found guilty of murdering his twin brother in a field. The police are trying to take him away and he keeps shouting "Mr Morningstar! Mr Morningstar,  _please!_  Help me! You said you'd protect me from all things evil!" I try to suppress a shiver up my spine as I look at the cold dead eyes of my professor. Maybe it's my mind wishing that the man would show some sort of compassion, but I swear I do see a glimmer of remorse in Mr Morningstar's eyes after the begging continues and Mr Gray starts to cry. Either way, at least he had the decency not to smile. They took Mr Gray away.

     Today, I asked Mr Morningstar if he's going to see him anytime soon and he replied: "Yes I think I will, I have a debt to collect from him." What debt?

     We got news that Mr Gray had hung himself last night in his cell. Was Mr Gray's debt to Mr Mornhis soul?

     After the police had told the Dean about poor Mr Gray, they said the FBI wanted to have a talk with Mr Morningstar. I'm curious about what they need to say and my speculations about the red-head are too great not to listen in on their conversation. 

     I'm following them to Mr Morningstar's office and he's still smiling, it scares me that a man can smile so much to himself - especially at a time like this. Why do I get the feeling he knows I'm following them?

     As the hallway grows quiet, I begin to listen outside the office door. This is what I hear:

"Mr Morningstar, following the death of Mr Gray and his pleading with you the day we arrested him, we feel the need to ask you a couple of questions," says one faceless female voice. I only saw the back of her head but I believe she was also a red-head.

"Please, ask away, I have nothing to hide." The professor replies, annoyingly calm and I can practically hear the smile.

"What did he mean by 'You said you'd protect me from all things evil'?" The female asks.

"Detectives, our relationship was not entirely professional, it was something that I had probably muttered in his ear one night but I really must say, I don't remember it."

"Right. We've had reports of him becoming more controversial than he was before he met you. We also have reason to believe that the previous two deaths were linked somehow as they both happened after you arrived at this institution." The man speaks now, he was tall, not as tall as Mr Morningstar, mind. The man had brown hair and he made little comments here and there as they walked to the office. Comments like: 'Phew, it's hotter than Hell, isn't it?' to which the lady would scoff but there was a fondness in it.

"Well, I may have 'corrupted' Mr Gray in the eyes of many people at this school but I can assure you I had nothing to do with the first two deaths and neither did Mr Gray." Why is he defending Mr Gray? He doesn't really need to now, does he?

"So, what? The other two professors just changed their ways after they met you?" The man again.

"I can't explain what went through their minds, detective because I can't have known, it's not like I can read minds." He laughed slightly and I shiver.

"Mr Morningstar you claimed that your last school was in Ohio, well we looked into it and we couldn't find any evidence of you ever teaching in the world let alone in Ohio. It's almost like you never existed up until now." The lady speaks up again and I gasp a little louder than I expect to, I back away from the door and sprint around the corner. I stop and close my eyes.  _It's_ _like he never existed._  

"You know, it's rude to eavesdrop but I understand the temptation one can have to want to know the truth. I eavesdrop, too. I bet a fiddle of gold against your soul I'm better than you."

As my possible final statement to the world, I promise you, dear reader: my religion professor is The Devil.

**Author's Note:**

> I chose to use Science against Religion because it's one of the oldest arguments people still have: God or evolution, God or the big bang, God or man. . .


End file.
